Should I marry a Thai girl I’ve known for 18 months?

Last Sunday I woke up, had some breakfast and was thinking about doing bicep curls at the gym when I was presented with this message on my Facebook page:

My first reaction was….

There are enough stories online about farangs getting married in Thailand and losing everything, and it seems it’s still happening.

I’m writing this article because I think one day it could save some white-knight from going broke and act as a word of warning to future white-knights who will soon enter the Kingdom.To the person who sent me the message and anyone else who is thinking about getting married to a Thai Girl, please read this article before you make your choice.

Talk to friends and family

Asia is the place where men to go from zero to hero.

Back in your native country, you’re awkward AF, with girls laugh at you saying:

As a result, you give in to the first girl who bats an eye-lid at you.

24 hours later you’ve moved in together… and 4 months later you’re thinking about getting married.

STOP!

You’re not in love (well you might be if you’re a forever alone virgin), and things will most likely go south very soon.

Instead of doing something stupid like sending her or her family money to buy something in their name (land or house), talk to someone you trust about your situation.

Don’t talk to expats in Thailand, many have lived here so long without going back to their native country, that they have lost their bearings on what’s normal and what is not.

Your best friends or family will tell you straight up whether it’s a good or bad idea.

Take the Facebook message I received above, red flags I saw:

He mentions she is from a poor family ( first hint of money)

He mentions Thai sin sot /dowry (a huge sum for a divorcee with a child)

She has a child (indicator that money is needed to support them and he is merely financial support)

He has only known her 18 months (he tells me further on down the chat)

She get’s angry when he only wants to pay half the dowry and stuff for her apartment

For me there is too much direct and indirect talk of money.

Nothing about love, how he enjoys spending time with her or anything like that. Everything one way or another is about money.

My advice to him was:

I asked him whether he had good friends or family he could speak to, he said no.

I believe a reason a lot of people end up losing a small fortune after getting married in Thailand is because they are loners or don’t fit in back home.

There’s nothing wrong with being a loner, I prefer to be on my own most of the time, but I’m self-aware enough to realize that I do need interaction with others else I can get a bit loopy.

By getting married so quickly the people who don’t fit in back home for whatever reason, receive validation that they belong by getting married (I think?).

Don’t get married so fast

In England, people wait years before they move in together, in Thailand I have known people who got married in less than a year on their first Thailand trip.

Again I think this is mainly down to two things:

Loneliness – Thailand can be a lonely place, even if you have several girlfriends from Thai Friendly or pay for pay, it can still get lonely.

As most of us move here to start fresh, if you don’t have any social connections before you arrive, you’re much more likely to get in a relationship and married.

Especially true with older people (40+) who are single, they think they need to find a partner now and are scared to be alone for the rest of their life.

Validation – if someone was never the ladies man when they were young and now have a girlfriend (maybe the first one in their life), they will do anything to keep her, even if it means giving her lots of money or getting married way too quick.

This can be down to micro-childhood trauma such as never having a girlfriend in their teen years, being bullied at school, not belonging to a group or being beaten too much as a child.

Getting someone to sign a piece of paper saying you will be together forever (cue divorce 2 months later), is a big status symbol to people that they finally have a place to belong, completely oblivious to the fact that it’s more about your money than you.

I think the concept of marriage today is stupid anywhere in the world, but if you do plan on getting married in Thailand or anywhere else in the world, get to know the person for 5 years before you give her money to buy a home or land to invest in ‘your’ future.

People change and you need to spend several years before you really know someone, even more so when you come from two completely different worlds (West/East).

I’m almost in my thirties and within 3 decades I have 5 friends who I completely trust, most of whom I’ve known for 12+ years.

How many people outside your family do you trust with everything? I’m guessing the number is less than 5.

But you’re thinking about getting married after 18 months to a person from a completely different culture?

Do you even common sense?

I’ve had common sense all my life, only after living in Thailan have I realized I’ve taken it for granted.

I assumed that everyone else had common sense… but after living in Thailand I now know that is not the case.

I have a friend who lives here and every other week he does something insanely stupid. He’ll end up spending more money than he can afford and someone get in the worst spots with girls.

He will do this every, single, week.

I didn’t get why until now – he has no common sense. I think a lot of people who get married here so fast also lack common sense.

Don’t marry in Thailand if you’re not always in the country

Please for the love of god don’t propose to a Thai girl if you don’t spend more than 10 months in the year in Thailand.

You might think she is waiting for you and she probably is (so she can get her next advancement of cash), but she is probably messaging dozens of guys in the process.

Thai girls need to plan for their future and because you’re not always in the country there is a chance you won’t marry her or come back.

So they look for a contingency plan, you might even be her contingency plan while she has a much more alpha male as her main boyfriend.

You can get happily married in Thailand

I know people who have been married to Thai girls for years and they are living a great, happy, fulfilled lives.

All of them have one thing in common – strong social circles and family ties.

They talk to their family and friends back home all the time, they go back and visit them every year, they have good expat circles, and quite a lot of them have businesses in Thailand and are improving themselves all the time.

To me, these are well-balanced individuals who are kept in check by their loved ones stopping them from doing anything rash.

I mean if I told any of my friends in Thailand or back home that I was getting married to a girl I met not so long again and, and she wants 2 million baht dowry, and wants me to pay for everything in her apartment, they would rip my dick off and sit me down for an intervention.

This is because I have people in my life who care for me and will put me in check when I am about to do something stupid. Just like I would do the same for them.

I think people who get married too quick in Thailand don’t have the social or family ties that stop them from making such mistakes.

Thai girls are awesome, but newbs get caught with the wrong ones

This article might read like all Thai girls are just out for your money – they are not. The vast majority (98%) are decent girls just looking for a life partner.

The problem is most guys find their girlfriends from Bangkok nightclubs such as Climax or Thai go-go bars and expect everything to be normal.

My friend who co-runs the website Nomad Philippines is seeing a girl who is getting married in December, and her boyfriend is back home wanking working:

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Harvie

I'm Harvie, a UK expat who has been living in Thailand for 7 years, giving my take on life in Asia.

15 Comments

Pat

Yes but by the time you get a message like that, it usually means the guys already made up his mind already, and anything anyone says is pontless.

I am assuming she is some bar hooker/mattress acrobat he’s met in some dive?

Easy to feel sorry given the obvious naiivety that accompanies such messages, but I stopped caring about such idiots/masocists long time ago.

Brainwashed and whipped by the p**sy big time. There’s no hope at all. You may as well kill him now, poison his Chang, push him off the balcony, save him the trouble.

Anyone visited Udon Thani recently? Parts of it resemble soi Cowboy by day, given the huge numbers of guys married to ”innocent, loving farm girls”

It’s sad when someone you know well, or a friend send you a message like that. Nothing you say will make the slightest difference. And before they know it, they’re supporting the whole village, the bone idle parents, her kids from previous/current Thai BF/husband, constantly having to supply cash for face gain in the village.

As soon as the cash runs dry, the family stop gaining face and the guy gets confused, wondering whats become of this happy smiling clan he’s got himself into.

Hence the huge number of farang suicides in Thailand. Not a good way to go, but if you’ve been stripped bone dry and the ego humiliated after an initial rose tinted honeymoon period, it’s hard to come to terms how ruthless they can be.

But, I’m only mentioning the saddest worst case scenario here that happens so often. Obviously there are success stories to make one smile, but in most cases the success stories don’t involve blokes who are broke ass fools.

I’d say don’t give the girl any money. Tell her she need to make money by herself and that you can pay for food and stuff sometimes. And don’t marry her either. I think it’s a mistake to marry a thai girl. especially one from Soi Cowboy lol. I eventually get tired of thai girls and they’re not the brightest ones either. Talked with a thai girl today who didn’t know what Toyota,Volvo, lamborghini or IKEA is. Wanted to punch her in the face.

Man im sorry for you, sounds like you need to marry a man, like a used car salesman or a mechanic, so you can sit in bed at night, holding hands and talking about cars and Ikea. I wonder how many Thai products you havent heard of, without doing a web search you list 3 types of thai fertilizer and 3 medicines fir ibtestial woerms in cattle, or youre a complete idiot by your own standard and if youre even half a man you punch yourself right now but im sure youll miss. What the crap is up with all these testosterone deficient guys who look for western male “qualities” in Asian girls? The day i go out to discuss cars and ikea kitchen utensils with a bargirl i will chose between A. Kill myself or B. Get on testosterone replacement therapy (hopefully im nearly 80 before that happens).

So many stupid farangs go to this country thinking they are gods gift to women, no you are not you are just an atm and if your white also a status symbol.

Thai women and asian women in general are mercenaries, and the have no hang ups about “love” like in the west. To them that shit is a foreign concept they are all just about the cash or status.

Especially if they are from a poor rice farmer family they try to overcompensate for the validation. Like omg sure my family is low status but look at this walking atm/status symbol I just bagged.

Do yourself a favor and don’t get married ever. If you lose this girl there is another bitch just around the corner. Theres no shortage of rice farmers daughters despite what some of these idiot farangs think.

One more thing. Since most of the idiot farangs reading this won’t listen to my comments above or the good advice from this article anyway and will still get married to some rice farmers daughter at least do one thing.

DO NOT BUY LAND OR PROPERTY. Especially not in you new lovers name or her families. But even not in your own name.

You have no legal right to property in thailand, yes there are some loopholes through corporations you can use but they can change fast and be closed and if anything ever goes to court the verdict is always STUPID FARANG LOSES.

So if you do get married ONLY RENT. Even if you have to lie to your wife and tell her you own still Rent.

If one “suicide” can be prevented from this comment it was worth me writing it.

Lots of really good advice here. Thai women are a lot of fun but you need to know where you stand…… and its different than the western societies…. I asked my Girlfriend, where do men (not just farang but Thai boyfriends/husbands) fit in, and she said (very honestly) My mother and father (but especially mother) comes first, then my children come second then boyfriend /husband comes next…. so if you understand that, you can understand why they operate as they do…. So we need to look after ourselves, don’t buy any property, a few dollars every month is ok if you can manage it, and don’t live beyond your means… if that means she goes to another guy for fresh money… no problem if you understand their culture as above,,, they wont become western, but they are really nice women and I enjoy their company.

And you believe it, which is the most amazing thing. I never met an asian girl who didnt say “i want to help my parents first before i think of getting married” but none who did it. A year later they have a baby which they give to their parents and then go back to their boyfriend, their kid growing up believing their grandmother is their mom and their mom is their older sister. One of my ex didnt even know how old her son was. Another had abandonned 3 sons with 3 different fathers in her parents house and STILL had the nerve to lie to me and say she wanted to help her parents, while her old dad had to find an underpaid job 12 hours a day to feed her kids, while she lived with her underage drug addicted boyfriend who was the father of her youngest. Girls all over the world say what they think make them look good and noble, in Asian cultures respect for parents is expected, its always the right thing to say but never the thing to believe. You, their farang lover, is often more important than her parents but competing with her local boyfriend is usually a lost cause. This is more visible in Philippines (but not less true in the rest of SE asia) where they refer to the filipino father of their child as their true spouse “asawa”, and then call their foreign husband something lesser like hubby, not degrading enough to be a direct insult but degrading enough to make other locals know that her true husband is a local guy and not this foreigner shes stuck with. Never marry an asian single mom.

The British Army used to have a wonderful philosophy when it came to these sort of relationships. Probably still do for all I know. “Find ’em, feel ’em, fuck ’em, forget ’em.” I honestly think, without a shadow of doubt, that a large number of expats check their brains in with their luggage when they board a flight to Thailand. The only problem is, they forget to collect them with their luggage from the carousel when they arrive.

Sad to say that i have to agree that this guy cannot be stopped, cannot be saved from himself. And why should we save him, he is ok with it so just let him be a fool and give her the money. How can i say that? Its insensitive of me, like i dont care, right? I do care, thats the big problem, but i have several times collected evidence from social media and sent to western men being romance scammed by married ladies, and the result in most cases: i been harassed, called names, called a jelous fucktard who only want to destroy for them. Oh yes sure, like i would so want to fuck 30-40 year old married ladies with teenage kids, omg… Get this, i was even accused of travelling 4 years back in time to create a fake facebook profile for the lady and her filipino husband, i even used a time machine, thats how jealous i was. And the American guy bought it, he was convinced i put the profile pic there 4 years earlier, to destroy them many years before he even met her. How can anyone help a guy with so flawed reasoning? Impossible.

Dont try to stop them, those guys cannot be saved from themselves. Even young guys, stubborn as F and think they have a special love that the rest of us never experience, THEIR love is so pure and great and above the rest of us. So, both i and a friend of his whom i dont know warned him to not marry, he went ahead and did it despite all the classic warning signs being pointed out to him. Just a few months later he was separated, lived in a small hole in Angeles City while his ex wife was out spending her half of his money with her upper class filipino friends, exactly as she did before they got married.

That girl getting married in december, been with one, had sex, exchanged numbers. She told me a little about her foreign BF, where he was from and so on, and that she enjoyed a lot going out to meet guys, and sex too, obviously. A few months later i had 2 girls, we went out to party in discobar and decided to fix up one of the girls with another foreigner, and that i did. Took only a few minutes before i realize he was the boyfriend of the girl i had before, she didnt even know he was in the country before i told her “hey i party with your future husband last night”. So, guys can play that game too, the girl i gave him was as hot as his GF and 5-6 years younger. Never told his GF the part about the other girl and he dont know i fuck his GF so maybe they got married still.